By David Phillips
No Surprises
No doubt you’ve heard it variously stated – “…nothing surprises me anymore.” “I’m not surprised by anything these days.” “This is 2020, anything can happen.” Granted, with more and more errant, wild and depraved behavior going around and regarded as normal by so many, we may tend to be a little nonplussed (unperturbed by an awkward situation). And that may not be such a good thing.
More and more, our current culture of selfish sensuality reminds me of the spiritual condition of Judah that prompted god to say this about them in Jeremiah 6:15: Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, they did not know how to blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall: at the time that I punish them they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. That was not the first time God became disgusted with the conduct of mankind, nor was it the last. In Romans 1, Paul wrote of God’s wrath toward the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that was so prevalent in the Roman Empire in the first century.
What should we do in the face of all this wickedness and those who practice it? I believe at least part of the answer is to be seen in the examples we find in Scripture of those who lived in troubled times. Noah is a good case in point. He lived in a time when mankind was literally more wicked than ever before, Genesis 6:5-6. Notice what Noah’s life shows us.
- Despite the wickedness all around him, Noah conducted himself in righteous obedience to God. Genesis 6:8 says But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. That inspired statement is made about Noah in contrast to the conduct of all those around him who were so wicked that their lives prompted God to say, I am sorry that I have made them (6:7). No matter how bad our culture gets, no one gets a pass.
- Noah’s great faith is heralded in Hebrews 11:7. God warned him of an unprecedented event that was to come, events as yet unseen, and Noah’s response was to build a huge boat like never seen before, in strict accordance with the details God furnished him. The Hebrew writer describes his action as, in reverent fear constructed an ark… There is never a suitable substitute for faithful obedience.
- Noah didn’t just hunker down in a corner somewhere and watch his fellowman become more and more wicked, but Peter describes him as a herald of righteousness, 2 Peter 2:5. Though it was obviously an unpopular message, since no one outside his family obeyed God, Noah heralded, proclaimed, preached a message of righteousness. How did he do that? The Bible furnishes us with no details on this point, but he obviously used whatever means and resources he had to accomplish it. When it comes to means and resources for proclaiming righteousness, we have a pretty long list. Whatever means we have, a pulpit, a blogsite, Facebook or Twitter, one-on-one personal contact, and more, God expects us to use it.
Make no mistake, conditions of society around us today are pretty discouraging to those trying to serve God. Peter makes an interesting reference to a resident of Sodom, Lot, Abraham’s nephew, whose story is found in Genesis 19. In 2 Peter 2:7 he is referred to as righteous Lot, and though his motives and certainly his actions later were less than admirable, Peter says for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds… The greater point in that passage is put forth very simply in 2 Peter 2:9-10: then the Lord know how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
Yes, it’s bad out there, but we’ve still got to be good. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31